Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Monday 13 February 2017

"I Vow To Thee, My Country".



Illustration: FLICKR



"I Vow To Thee My Country ".
Poem: "I Vow To Thee My Country", by Sir Cecil Spring Rice.
Music: "Jupiter", by Gustav Theodore Holst.
Event: Festival of Remembrance, Royal Albert Hall.
Available on YouTube at

" What Have I Done To Thee ? "



"Caligaverunt oculi mei".
Tenebrae Responsories,
by Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611).
Sung by The Sixteen.
Director: Harry Christophers.
Available on YouTube at

Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo:
quia elongatus est a me, qui consolabatur me: 
Videte, omnes populi, si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite,
et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.


The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

The Improperia are a series of Antiphons and Responses, expressing the remonstrance of Jesus Christ with His people. Also known as The Reproaches, they are sung in The Catholic Liturgy as part of the observance of The Passion, usually on the afternoon of Good Friday.


In The Byzantine Rite, they are found in various Hymns of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The Improperia appear in The Pontificale of Prudentius (846 A.D. - 861 A.D.) and gradually came into use throughout Europe in the 11th-  and 12th-Centuries, finally being incorporated into The Roman Ordo in the 14th-Century.


My people, what have I done to Thee ?
How have I offended you ?
Answer me !



I led you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, 
but you led your Saviour to The Cross.

Holy is God !
Holy is God !
Holy and strong !
Holy and strong !

Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.

The following Article, in February 2016, was taken from, 
and can be read in full at, VULTUS CHRISTI


Illustration: VULTUS CHRISTI




Illustration: PINTEREST


The following Article is taken from, and can be read in full at, VULTUS CHRISTI

Answer Thou Me.

The Feast of Reparation for offenses committed against Our Lord in The Sacrament of His Love was instituted in the 17th-Century, when, particularly in a France ravaged by The Thirty Years War
(1618—1648), Churches were Desecrated and burned, The Most Blessed Sacrament was thrown to the ground, trampled, and even fed to animals. Bands of mercenary soldiers descended from the Protestant Countries of Northern Europe to pillage and destroy everything that represented The Catholic Faith. Two things, in particular, became the object of their fanatical wrath: Images of The Blessed Virgin Mary and The Most Holy Sacrament of The Altar.

At the same time, in certain ostensibly Catholic circles, there was a surge of interest in Black Magic and in engagement with The Powers of Darkness. Not infrequently, Sacred Hosts were stolen from Churches, or taken away surreptitiously after a Sacrilegious Communion. Too many Priests were seen to offer Holy Mass hurriedly and with scant reverence. Tabernacles were neglected. Churches were forsaken. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Apocalypse 19:16), the Thrice-Holy God, before Whom The Angels veil their faces and Adore, hidden beneath the fragile appearance of The Sacred Host, remained silent in a state of utter abjection, abandoned to the coldness, indifference, and carelessness of men.

“O, My people,
what have I done to thee,
or in what have I molested thee ?
Answer thou Me” (Micheas 6:3).





Sorrowing Love.

A multitude of Souls, grieved by the offences committed against Our Lord in The Sacrament of His Love, sought to make up for the Honour, Reverence, Adoration, Gratitude, and Love, that others refused Him. Believing Hearts were pierced through with a Sorrowing Love. The Holy Ghost inspired a vast Movement of Compunction and Reparation that came, over time, to find expression in The Sacred Liturgy, itself.

A special Mass and Office were composed, by which The Church approved this Movement of Compunction and Reparation. Mother Mectilde de Bar entered wholeheartedly into this Movement and, in some way, made its essential thrust so much her own that it came to be identified with The Benedictine Monasteries of Perpetual Adoration that she generated.



The True Body And Blood of Jesus Christ.

One might think that all of this belongs to the past, that things have changed since the dark and turbulent days of 17th-Century France, but this, alas, is not so. Remember recent events in Pamplona and in Fontainebleau. The Desecration of Churches and Sacrilegious Offenses against The Most Holy Sacrament of The Altar proliferate.

The distribution of Holy Communion IN THE HAND [Editor: Emphasis is mine], notably, has led to every manner of irreverence. Sacred Hosts have been found on the floor of Churches, stuck into the pages of books, and lying on pews. The disappearance of The Communion Rail; the widespread practice of Priest and people facing each other during The Holy Sacrifice; the indiscriminate use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in ordinary circumstances — all of these things have contributed to a massive loss of Faith in The Real Presence of Our Lord in The Blessed Sacrament and in Holy Mass as The Perfect Sacrifice of Calvary offered in an unbloody manner.

Many of those who present themselves for Holy Communion have no notion of what The Church believes and teaches: that this is no mere bread of Holy Remembrance, but is The True Body and Blood [Editor: And Soul and Divinity] of Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim: The Very Body and Blood formed by The Holy Ghost in The Womb of The Virgin Mary, nailed to The Wood of The Cross, Gloriously Risen from The Tomb, Ascended into The Heavenly Sanctuary, and Coming in Majesty at The End of Time to Judge The Living and The Dead.

This Article can be read in full at VULTUS CHRISTI



Sunday 12 February 2017

Septuagesima Sunday.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Septuagesima Sunday.
   Station at Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.


Semi-Double.

Privilege of The Second-Class.

Violet Vestments.


"Go you also into My Vineyard".
Artist: Rene de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.



In order to understand fully the meaning of the Text of today's Mass, we must study it in connection with The Lessons of The Breviary, since, in The Church's mind, The Mass and The Divine Office form one whole.

The Lessons and Responses in The Night Office are taken this week from The Book of Genesis. In them is related the story of The Creation of the World and of man, of our first parents' fall and the promise of a Redeemer, followed by the murder of Abel and a record of the generations from Adam to Noah.

"In the beginning," we read, "God created Heaven and Earth and upon the Earth He made man . . . and He placed him in a garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend it" (Third and Fourth Responses at Matins).

All this is a figure. Here is Saint Gregory's exposition. "The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires labourers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as Head of a household than Our Creator, Who governs all creatures by His Providence and Who, just as a Master has servants in his house, has His Elect in this World, from the Just Abel to the last of His Chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time ?



De Profundis (Septuagesima Sunday, Tract).
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 499.
Latin lyrics sung by the Benedictine Monks
of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain.
Available on YouTube at



The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the labourers in this vineyard are all those who, with a true Faith, have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good. By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of the Hebrews, who, from the beginning of the World, striving in the persons of their Saints to serve God with a Right Faith, ceased not, as it were, to work in cultivation of the vineyard.

But, at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words: "Why stand ye here all the day, idle ?" (Third Nocturn). Thus, all are called to work in The Lord's vineyard, by Sanctifying themselves and their neighbour in Glorifying God, since SSanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him, alone.

Adam failed in his task and God told him: "Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the Earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee . . . In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the Earth out of which thou was taken."



Septuagesima, 2008.
Gradual and Tract.
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Available on YouTube at




Being exiled from Eden," says Saint Augustine, "The First Man involved all his descendants in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him from whom they sprung. The whole mass of condemned humanity was, therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong from one evil to another" (Second Nocturn). "The sorrows of death surrounded me," says the Introit, and, as a matter of fact, it is in the Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls, close to the cemetery at Rome, that "The Station" for this Sunday is made.

The Collect adds that we are "justly afflicted for our sins". In the Epistle, the Christian life is represented by Saint Paul as an arena, where a man must take pains and strive to carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of Eternal Life is only given to those who work in God's vineyard, where work is hard and painful since the entrance of sin.

"O God", prays The Church, "grant to Thy people, who are called by the name of vines and harvests, that they may root out all thorns and briars, and bring forth good fruit in abundance" (Prayer on Holy Saturday, after The Eighth Prophecy).



The Traditional Latin Mass.
Available on YouTube at



"In His wisdom", says Saint Gregory, "Almighty God preferred rather to bring good out of evil than never allow evil to occur". For God took pity on men and promised them a Second Adam, who, restoring the order disturbed by the First Adam, would allow them to regain Heaven, to which Adam had lost all right, when expelled from Eden, which was "the shadow of a better life" (Fourth Lesson). "Thou, O Lord, art our helper in time of tribulation" (Gradual); "with Thee, there is merciful forgiveness" (Tract).

"Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant and save me in Thy mercy" (Communion). "Show Thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved", The Church cries similarly in The Season of Advent, when calling upon her Lord. The truth is that God, "Who has wonderfully created man, has more wonderfully redeemed him" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after The First Prophecy), for "The Creation of The World in the beginning was not a more excellent thing than The Immolation of Christ Our Passover at The End of Time" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after The Ninth Prophecy).

This Mass, when studied in the light of Adam's fall, prepares our mind for beginning the Season of Septuagesima, and understanding the sublime character of the Paschal Mystery for which this Season prepares our hearts.


In response to the call of The Master, Who comes to seek us even in the depths wherein we are plunged, through our first parents' sin (Tract), let us go and work in The Lord's vineyard, or enter the arena and take-up with courage the struggle which will intensify during Lent.

The "Gloria in excelsis" is not said from this Sunday until Maundy Thursday, except when the Mass of a Feast is said.

From Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the Tract is said only on Sundays and Feast Days. On Ferias, when The Mass of The Sunday is said, the Gradual is said, without the Tract.

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.

Mass: Circumdedérunt.
Preface: Of The Most Holy Trinity. During the week, The Common Preface.
    From this day until Holy Saturday, when the Gloria in excelsis is omitted, the Ite Missa est is     replaced by Benedicamus Domino.



The following Text is taken from "The Liturgical Year"
by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 4.
Septuagesima.


THE HISTORY OF SEPTUAGESIMA.

The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of The Liturgical Year, and is, itself, divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: The first week is called Septuagesima; the second week is called Sexagesima; the third week is called Quinquagesima.

All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of The Church, is called Quadragesima, that is, "Forty", because The Great Feast of Easter is prepared for by The Holy Exercises of Forty Days.

The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima, tells us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which The Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires, and devotion.



The Asperges, Introit, and Kyrie,
for Septuagesima Sunday.
2008.
Saint Andrew's Roman Catholic Church,
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Celebrant: Fr. Emerson, FSSP.
Available on YouTube at



Now, The Feast of Easter must be prepared for by Forty Days of Recollectedness and Penance. Those Forty Days are one of the principal Seasons of The Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by The Church for exciting, in the hearts of her children, the spirit of their Christian Vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a Season of Grace should produce its work in our Souls  —  the Renovation of the whole Spiritual Life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for The Holy Time of Lent.

She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the World, in order that our hearts may be more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with Ashes.

This prelude to The Holy Season of Lent was not known in the early ages of Christianity: Its institution would seem to have originated in The Greek Church. Besides The Six Sundays of Lent, on which by universal custom The Faithful never Fasted, the practice of this Church prohibited Fasting on the Saturdays, likewise; consequently, their Lent was short by twelve days of the Forty Days spent by Our Saviour doing Penance in the desert. To make up the deficiency, they were obliged to begin their Lent so many days earlier.


THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL



THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

Available (in U.K.) from

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Saturday 11 February 2017

"I Am The Immaculate Conception (Que Soy Era Immaculada Concepciou)". The Apparition Of The Blessed Virgin Mary At Lourdes, France, 11 February - 16 July 1858, To Saint Bernadette.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Apparition of The Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes.
Feast Day 11 February.

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.






English: Basilica of The Immaculate Conception, Lourdes, France.
Deutsch: Frankreich: Lourdes, Basilika der unbefleckten Empfängnis, 
Rosenkranzbasilika und Krypta in Lourdes.
Photo: 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Milorad Pavlek.
(Wikimedia Commons)




From 11 February 1858 to 16 July 1858, The Blessed Virgin Mary came down from Heaven eighteen times (Introit), and showed herself to Saint Bernadette Soubirous (Collect), in the cave of the rock at Massabielle (Gradual).

On 25 March 1858, she said to the little shepherdess of fourteen years of age: "I am The Immaculate Conception". Today's Feast, therefore, recalls Mary's triumph over the serpent (Tract), which The Septuagesimal Liturgy has in mind.



Stained-Glass Window,
from Bonneval Church, France,
showing the Vision of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.
Photo: 17 July 2009.
Source: Own work, adapted from 
Bonneval Eglise Notre-Dame vitrail 3.JPG.
Author: Xandar.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Like the woman seen by Saint John, "clothed in the Sun, with the Moon under her feet and a Crown of twelve Stars over her head" (Epistle), The Virgin of Lourdes "is clothed in a Robe and Veil, as White as Snow, she wears a Blue Girdle and on her bare feet rests a Golden Rose," all symbolic of her Virginal Love.

She exhorts to Penance the unfortunate Children of Eve, who have not been, like herself, preserved from sin. On The Day of The Annunciation, she declared her name to us, to manifest that it is on account of The Incarnation (Collect) that God has vouchsafed to her "not to be tainted with The Original Stain" (Tract).

Remembering that Mary is "The Ark of The New Covenant" (Epistle), let us go with confidence to her, who, "Full of Grace" (Offertory), "visits our Earth to multiply in us the gifts of her riches" (Communion).

Mass: Vidi civitátem.
In Lent: Commemoration and Last Gospel of The Feria.
Preface: Of The Blessed Virgin Mary: Et te in Conceptione Immaculáta.

Friday 10 February 2017

Weekly Traditional Latin Masses In Kent: Maidstone; Ashford; Tenterden; Headcorn; Ramsgate; Margate; Tunbridge Wells; Chislehurst.



Illustration by
FLICKR

Zephyrinus is delighted to publicise
the Traditional Latin Masses,
which are Celebrated in Kent
on a regular Weekly basis on Sundays.

In addition, Traditional Latin Masses
are Celebrated during the Week,
on Feast Days and Holy Days of Obligation.



Illustration by
FLICKR

There is a vibrant and happy group
who attend these Masses
and meet, after Mass, for a lovely Lunch
in various hostelries and locations.

Do come and join them. You will all be most welcome.



Illustration by
FLICKR

Besides Glorifying God in an edifying,
Holy and Traditional manner,
you will see the wonderful Kent countryside
changing throughout the Seasons,
which, in itself, Glorifies God.


              



MAIDSTONE, KENT.

CHURCH OF SAINT FRANCIS.



Church of Saint Francis,
Maidstone, Kent.
Photo: © Copyright Chris Whippet
and licensed for reuse under this

Traditional Latin Masses are Celebrated

at the

Church of Saint Francis,
126, Week Street,
Maidstone, Kent ME14 1RH,
(next to Maidstone East Railway Station)

at 1230 hrs,

on the FIRST SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH.


ASHFORD, KENT.

CHURCH OF SAINT SIMON STOCK.


Church of Saint Simon Stock,
Ashford, Kent.
Photo: WIKIMAPI

Traditional Latin Masses are Celebrated

at the

Church of Saint Simon Stock,
Brookfield Road,
Ashford, Kent TN23 4EU,

at 1215 hrs,

on the SECOND SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH.


TENTERDEN, KENT.

CHURCH OF SAINT ANDREW.



Traditional Latin Masses are Celebrated

at the

Church of Saint Andrew,
47, Ashford Road,
Tenterden, Kent TN30 6LL,

at 1200 hrs,

on the THIRD SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH.


HEADCORN, KENT.

CHURCH OF SAINT THOMAS OF CANTERBURY.



Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury,
Headcorn, Kent.
Photo © Copyright David Anstiss
and licensed for reuse

Traditional Latin Masses are Celebrated

at the

Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury,
Becket Court, 15, Station Road,
Headcorn, Kent TN27 9SB,
(near to Headcorn Railway Station)

at 1200 hrs,

on the FOURTH SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH.



WHEN THERE IS A FIFTH SUNDAY IN THE MONTH,
THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS IS CELEBRATED AT

ASHFORD, KENT.

CHURCH OF SAINT SIMON STOCK.


Saint Simon Stock Church,
Ashford, Kent.
Photo: WIKIMAPIA

Traditional Latin Masses are Celebrated

at the

Church of Saint Simon Stock,
Brookfield Road, Ashford, Kent TN23 4EU,

at 1215 hrs,

on the FIFTH SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH.


Zephyrinus is grateful to Tony V at PRAY TELL UNCHAINED
for providing information on Usus Antiquior Masses in Ramsgate, Kent.




Traditional Latin Mass at Saint Augustine's,
Ramsgate, Kent.



Saint Augustine's Shrine,
Ramsgate, Kent.

Times of Latin
Usus Antiquior Masses.

RAMSGATE, KENT.

Saint Augustine’s Church,
Saint Augustine’s Road,
Ramsgate,
Kent CT11 9PA.

Telephone: 01843 592 071.

Traditional Latin Masses at

1200 hrs. Sunday.

and

0930 hrs. Friday.




Saint Ethelbert and Saint Gertrude Church,
Ramsgate, Kent.

RAMSGATE, KENT.

Saint Ethelbert and Saint Gertrude Church,
72, Hereson Road,
Ramsgate,
Kent CT11 7DS.

Traditional Latin Mass at

0930 hrs.
on Wednesdays.



Saint Augustine's Church,
Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Illustration: THE CIVIC SOCIETY

TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT.

Saint Augustine’s Church,
Crescent Road,
Royal Tunbridge Wells,
Kent TN1 2LY.

Telephone: 01892 522525.

Traditional Latin Mass at

1900 hrs.
on Wednesdays.



Saint Mary's Church,
Chislehurst, Kent.
Illustration: ARCHDIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK

CHISLEHURST, KENT.

Saint Mary's Church
28 Crown Lane,
Chislehurst,
Kent BR7 5PL.

E-Mail: frcbriggs@stmarysrc.org

Telephone: 020 8467 3215.

Traditional Latin Mass at

1100 hrs.
Every Sunday.

and

1930 hrs.
on Fridays.




Saint Austin and Saint Gregory Church,
Margate, Kent.

MARGATE, KENT.

Saint Austin and Saint Gregory Church,
38 Charlotte Place,
Margate,
Kent CT9 1LP.

Telephone: 01843 220825.

E-Mail: info@margatecatholic.org


Traditional Latin Mass at

1130 hrs.
on Sundays

and

1930 hrs.
on Mondays.


THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL



THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from

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